National Art Museum of Ukraine is the most representative collection of Ukrainian art in the world. The museum collection includes more than 40 thousand exhibits, including masterpieces of Ukrainian iconography, painting, sculpture, graphics, and media from the XII century to the present day. Museum keeps one of the best Ukrainian icon collections. The museum was founded by the efforts of Ukrainian intellectuals and industrialists-patrons in the late XIX century as the first public museum in Kyiv. On September 21, 1897, the foundation stone was laid while the treasury allocated first 50 thousand rubles. The museum building was designed by architect Petro Boitsov in the neoclassical style. The famous Kyiv architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi finalized the project and supervised the work. The sculptural decoration of the facade was made by the workshop of Elio Sala. The official opening and consecration of the institution, which was named the Kyiv Art, Industrial and Scientific Museum, took place on December 30, 1904.

https://namu.ua/